07.02.03

brain dump 005 [recent obsession with food edition]

upper meadows farm's CSA (community-supported agriculture) program, of which we are now a (partial) part, thanks to our next-door neighbor. the first few weeks are notorious for being skimpy and random, so i've been rocking the mad kitchen improv to make use of weird wee piles of, like, grape leaves and cardoons.

5 boroughs ice cream, a series of locally made small-batch pints that pay homage to various new york 'hoods (ex. upper east side rich white vanilla, staten island landfill) . i was particulary intrigued by the south bronx cha cha chocolate, which is made with chipotle and habanero a la spicy hot chocolate; fortuitously, a single pint materialized at the amish market last week. it is awesome.

queens county farm museum, home of the only corn maze (come harvest time) in the new york city area. locals beware: i will be dragging you here in the fall.

franny's rhubarb and aperol cocktail, courtesy of apartment therapy. this solves the problem of what to do with the rhubarb we got from the CSA, but where in the world does one get aperol? knowing new york, there's probably a community group for that as well.

recipe for 'karol lu's i love you but i've chosen chili,' the winning entry at the "bruce chili" cook-off, 2006. it beat the meaty chilis, people! haven't tried this yet, but I'm excited about it. we missed the '07 chili takedown a few weeks ago, but i hear there's one in williamsburg in the next few months. (link via not eating out in new york, a brilliant recipe and food blog that also evaluates each dish's cost and 'health factor').

insomnia cookies: hey, late-night delivery service for something other than crack! if these guys made chocolate cake and delivered to midtown (at present they're only in the nyu area and handle mostly cookies, brownies, and milk), our friend george would be the happiest man alive.

tyler florence's summer berry cobbler, the final destination of the gorgeous fruit i acquired last weekend. that saturday's version, for a dinner party, was sublime - i had jersey blueberries and wild strawberries from the union square greenmarket, and wow am i sold on wild strawberries now. i tried again this saturday with a slightly higher crust-to-fruit ratio and store-bought produce, and it wasn't quite as good; that said, given my total lack of baking skills, it's a hell of a summer recipe.

consumed anything zesty lately? any sexy food tricks i should know about? no, not that one!

06.27.07

[on why office conversations never quite work for me, part 17]

1: ooh, blackouts everywhere!

2: [checks transit site] oh, it's the upper east side. no husband for me tonight.

3: your husband is connected to the electrical supply?

2: yes, i have an electrical husband.

1, 3: [silent]

2: great for housework, not so good for the beach.

1, 3: [silent]

06.20.07

after two years and change at a women's magazine, i've finally started absorbing the culture. it's an extremely gradual process - i still refuse to let strangers [or friends, really] pour wax on me, and i have a hard time spending more than about $50 on shoes) - but there's definite seepage. i subscribe to daily candy and have actually started trucking out to sample sales, for if there's one thing mama taught me, it's that many things are more satisfying when they once cost four times as much as they do when you acquire them. it works in reverse, too, especially when it comes to fortuitous work discounts and freebies: when i inherited a pair of It Boots from corporate christmas a few seasons back, i turned them around on eBay for enough to buy a much-needed bookcase for the apartment. the ingenuity on my part was minimal, but o, was i ever pleased with myself. designer labels that turn into furniture aren't half bad.

i got an alert yesterday about the US release of the anya hindmarch "i'm not a plastic bag" bag. for the uninitiated, it's a limited edition, comparatively cheap ($15) designer grocery bag that created a frenzy in the UK and has been reselling for several hundred dollars online. a few thousand of the local version went on sale today at a handful of stateside boutiques. the math on this one seemed easy: i could wake up a few hours early, queue before work, drop $30 (there's a 2-bag limit) and possibly earn some money (or, you know, earn a little less money and keep one for myself). i was at the store by about 9 (an hour before opening), and installed myself at the end of a hundred-person line.

i...lasted about ten minutes. to pass the time, i cracked open douglas's james brown book, which made me consider what douglas would think of lining up for a bag. then i ran through my schedule in my head, thinking that if i was extra-sleepy after getting to work, maybe i could cancel my free skin cancer screening at lunch (?!)* or skip out on donating platelets at the blood bank this afternoon (?!?!). then the light rain turned into real rain, i decided the universe thought i was an asshole, and i took off. i still think the math was solid, but i couldn't handle trading two hours of my life for The Sack Keira Knightley Brings to the Farmers' Market. i'm a pansy.

and you, internets - what would justify two hours in a queue for you? i'd do it for...tickets to a smiths reunion show. or to cast my vote in '08. speaking of, how 'bout that bloomberg?

*post script: it's a good thing i kept that appointment. they told me i have Suspicious Moles.

06.18.07

there's no pleasing me. when joe and i spend the weekend decomposing in front of the television, i bellyache about all the new york we're missing; when we ping-pong across town, as we have for the past few days, i feel cheated of several good naps. though i'll probably be fantasizing about those naps for the rest of the afternoon, i will admit that i was amused.

wabes and i made our annual trip (her second, my third) to the renegade craft fair (expert rundown from design*sponge here) in mccarren park pool, an up-and-coming venue at the border of williamsburg and greenpoint.* since i finally learned to leave joe at home, we had hours to wander among the booths and hemorrhage money. all things considered, i think i was positively restrained: i picked up an owls-on-a-bike kitchen towel for $6, a cicada tank top from supermaggie for $20, and split a $5 bag of handmade stationery and coasters from sesame letterpress. if i believed we had any extra space in our dish drawers or on our walls, i'd probably be out several hundred bucks. say what you will about the inconvenience of steep prices for handmade goods, but buying directly from a crafter never gets old.

aside on craft purchases: if i haven't yet convinced you to visit etsy (a highly searchable and distinctly excellent marketplace), do so immediately. because listing and selling fees for vendors are so low (20 cents and 3.5%, respectively), prices are a fraction of what you'd see at most galleries (where commission rates are typically 50-60%) - and the selection is unbeatable. sure, you sometimes have to wade through amateur nonsense to find the good stuff, but a lot of really talented artists have gone etsy. it's a fantastic site.

i could also tell you about the unexpected nudity joe, my dad, and i encountered at a one-woman show on saturday, or the joan osborne concert we caught in prospect park with meg and david and my friend eric (on loan from london) saturday night. detailing the former, though, would ruin the surprise if you happen to see said show - and the spirit of the latter is best conveyed in this photo. rock on, park slope; rock on.

*the 'up-and-coming' part is a little weird, since a derelict depresssion-era municipal pool is in theory a brilliant place to hold events and in practice a lawsuit waiting to happen. during the day, there's enough reflected heat in the pool to poach a hipster faster than you can say "lcd soundsystem" - the paramedics were giving a girl oxygen at the fair entrance when we showed up. weather wouldn't be a problem after dark, but a lot of the pool's old machinery is rusted out and still in place; tetanus, sprains, and concussions, o my! i vote for the grassy part of the park next year.

06.15.07

the golden compass needs to come out now.

06.12.07

tell me, have you heard of this "trash the dress" thing the kids are doing now? featured in a new york times piece on sunday ("is this any way to treat vera wang?"), it goes something like this:

FORGET throwing your wedding dress into a plastic bag and storing it in the attic. Enter the Trash the Dress photo session, in which the bride, post-wedding, jumps back into her gown and puts it through its paces — swimming in it, wearing it on horseback, even burning it — all while her photographer clicks away.

damn it, i agree with gawker ("Or you could sell the dress on Ebay and donate the cash to charity. Bitch.")! i hate agreeing with gawker!

i have a lot of issues with TTD, particularly with TTD as articulated by the site (trashthedress.com) mentioned in the times piece. excepting one or two shots that, i must say, would be at home in vogue (hint: not the ones involving swimming pools, homages to that one love scene in from here to eternity, or apparent dowry death), most of the photos claim to be saying "look, honey, i'll never need this again because i'm so committed to you!" and in fact say "good thing i'm so committed to you, because i'm a megawhore!"

the TTD thing wouldn't have really worked in my case: my dress cost about $300 a full six years before my ninja seamstress and i attacked it, so the vogue-y juxtaposition of ultra-haute fashion and urban decay is out. i also didn't give a damn about tripping all over grass and mucky cobblestones on our actual wedding day, and how do you trash a dress that's already covered with footprints? i'd like to say that the conspicuous consumption is what kills the concept's appeal for me (and it should), but i think it's actually that waiting to rock out until your wedding day's over is sort of...the opposite of punk (though the point confuses me - just look at what it's doing to my grammar). having the best day ever without worrying about your clothes is one thing, and a great thing; the whole "isn't it sexy to ruin something expensive?" is something else entirely.

...or i'm thinking too hard about something that's little more than a way for photographers to squeeze even more money out of gullible wedding clients (i think it's pretty telling that the vast majority of TTD photos are just as trite as land-based, ultrasincere portraits). who can say? ladies, would you trash the dress? gents and lady-partners, how much is it worth to you to have a photo of your bride on fire riding a horse through a bog?

06.07.07

brain dump 004 [mid-month nonsense]

field to plate, a state-by-state guide to seasonal availability of fresh produce. speaking of fresh produce, check out douglas's "project omniherbivore" posts, where he details his adventures in trying to prepare and eat all veggies (ex. cardoons and black radishes).

vegetarian meal plans (via melissa). cassie young, a vegetarian in british columbia, posts week-to-week meal plans (with shopping lists!) and recipes. i can't wait to try her lentil, radish, and orange salad with spinach, and she seems to have cracked the mystery of the cold buckwheat noodle salad dressing. hooray!

the new york age quiz (from time out new york). i am 44, apparently; this is george's fault for taking joe and me to the village vanguard for jazz a few months ago. the quiz results page consoled me and (ironically) suggested i attend live music shows more often. how old are you, internets?

the hairy-footed pygmy gerbil, close to extinction in the jebel marra mountains in darfur (there are reportedly about 100 left).

lolcat veronica mars, via television without pity.

thrice-cursed etsy! this week someone made a bag (my favorite color, my lucky number, and a big bug!) AND a tchotchke just for me. need money tree.

also afoot in kidchampia: a mass migration to a castle in ireland. seriously.

06.04.07

i think i finally understand what it feels like to have harry potter fever: i just saw the trailer for his dark materials: the golden compass and nearly started weeping with excitement. nicole kidman as mrs. coulter! daniel craig as lord asriel! question, though: who on earth will kevin bacon play (seriously, he's in the credits)?

05.30.07

ah, the first stirrings of summer in new york, when a young woman's fancy turns to thoughts of o god i should wear the air conditioning unit as a backpack. it isn't actually that warm, yet; joe posits that we've developed an addiction to constant cold air and are deeply unnatural creatures. my only defenses are that my customary body temperature is low (around 96.8), and that i stored so much pretty sparkly sunshine by growing up in southern california that i don't have to feel the day star on my shoulders, or hear anyone speak without irony, ever again. who can say?

work is easing up, as my new associate has finally arrived and the current issue of the magazine is queuing up for the publisher in a calm and orderly fashion.* i've gotten over the fear that having to boss someone around would lead to my death (my issues with authority figures have nothing on my issues with being an authority figure) and have gotten to the stage where i just want her to like me. it's tough to tell how things are going so far: i'm trying to be friendly and supportive, but i keep forgetting that the first few days at a new job can be crazy intimidating, and that i should let her get her shit in order on her own. we needn't braid each other's hair.

the other upshot of the work-settling is that we should finally be able to vacation; i've let go of my dreams of a "woo new job!" trip to iceland (flights are cheap, but nothing else is), but i plan to get to california and chicago as soon as is humanly possible. in the interim, jake is doing us the favor of coming out for the weekend so i will have someone to cry with about the end of veronica mars (for the record, i think the last two episodes worked quite well as a series finale - long live LoVe!). this is a good thing, and there are more (hopefully very cold) good things a-comin'.

*by the end of the last closing period, by contrast, i was hovering at my phone at 10 pm waiting for do-or-die calls about porn. it was unpleasant.

05.29.07

work is eating my life. here is stuff.

brain dump 003 [05.07-06.07]

mesh cloche from mothology (the second picture down on the right). i have no business buying outfits for my herbs, given that most of them are long gone, but these are sexy as hell - what sweet basil plant wouldn't flourish beneath such finery? also, i could sneak one onto joe's head as he sleeps.

fafarazzi.com, a "fantasy celebrity league;" earn points when your celebs spawn, overdose, try to sneak a gun through the airport, and so on. believe it or not, i'm probably too squeamish to take pleasure in doing well at something like this; i'd go for fantasy soap league instead (earn points when your characters are possessed by satan, &c), but that's joe's specialty.

the harry-est town in america, amazon's list of the folks who pre-order the most copies of harry potter and the deathly hallows. i am shocked, in all seriousness, that palo alto is not on this list. [okay, shocked when i first started this post. it's getting up there now.]

sweet deliverance, a community-supported agriculture distributor ("You can also sign up for fresh flowers [zinnias, snapdragons, sunflowers], eggs, dairy, and cheese"). i lunged at this - a green market at our door! - before i realized that the food is prepared as well as selected for you. alas, we can't spend $250/wk (!) for fancy organic food; this sure makes the people who spend $40/day on zone chefs food look like suckers, though.

white lion babies, not to be confused with the other kind.

the new york times loves the future perfect. i admit that i feel terribly superior for having owned two jason miller pieces ("i was here" tables) since '03.

learning to love you more, the book! both jen and i got e-mails about being considered for publication, but mine (which arrived yesterday) had a note about dpi; sadly, my documentation might not be clear enough for reproduction. this is what i get for being too chicken to upload huge files (and for deleting old photos from my camera). ironically, i had the same problem a day earlier, when an nyc lesbian lifestyle magazine wanted to use my photo of water taxi beach (warning: no lesbians in picture, probably). boo.

personal news, other than the work-life-eating? at a dinner party last night, i sat across from a woman who had an affair with brando. she also performed with a heap of jazz greats, and had fantastic stories that involved things like staying up all night in a crappy west side hotel rehearsing with duke ellington as the cleaning people vacuumed the empty corridors. okay, that's not really personal news, but damn was she cool.

05.14.07

101 in 1001: 090 walk the length of manhattan [completed 05.13.07]

the manhattan challenge: frequently asked questions

Q. why 'the manhattan challenge'?

joe wanted to call it the tenderfoot challenge, for lordy did we hurt by the end, but i reject the newbie association: i'll have you know that i hiked 11 miles from glacier point at yosemite, um, a decade and change ago. i liked 'the manhattan project,' but then sarah told us a terrible story at dinner last night about nuclear wind blowing the skin off of horses in japan.

Q. what was your route?

we started at the henry hudson bridge (220th) and followed broadway down to columbus circle, where we switched over to eighth avenue until we got below times square; then we took seventh ave until it turned into varick, followed varick south for a while, and cut east until we hit broadway again - then broadway, more or less, all the way to battery park.

Q. why north to south?

because no one wants to end up exhausted in inwood at dusk. trust me, i lived there for three months. a guy who blogged his south to north trip (on the east side, moreover) sounds like he had a much sexier time than we did - resting on the steps of the met! - but celebrating the end in battery park sounded much better. also, we hit the most interesting (and unfamiliar) stuff in the first hundred blocks or so; if we'd done the trip in reverse, i'd have been too tired to check out washington heights. washington heights smells fantastic, by the way.

Q: any advice for other folks who want to do the walk?

1: bring your own toilet paper.
2: don't wear rings; your hands will swell.
3: take advil before you leave.

Q: how long did it take?

subtracting time for brunch at columbia, about four and a half hours. before and after we hit the aimless mass of humanity that is the upper west side, we averaged about a block a minute. this made me feel like a badass, at least until i remembered that jen will be running twice as far (we walked about 15 miles) in a few months.

Q. would you do it again?

totally, but not for a while - and i'd probably do the east side instead, even though i wouldn't be able to pee at my own apartment.

Q. hey, can you feel your legs today?

no.


click on the photo up top to go to ye olde photo set (i snapped something every ten blocks or so, at least for the first few hours). more questions? hit me.

05.10.07

i made a big hippie salad for dinner on monday. it was good - i've been eating it for lunch all week - but the best thing about it is the exotic frisson associated with saying quinoa aloud. "keen-wahh," i said in a worldly voice as i presented the bowl to joe. we both contemplated it. "hey, they're all wearing hula hoops!"

i miss tony blair already. is that wrong?